DANGEROUS CONJECTURES

A pair of young professionals faces conspiracies and a pandemic in Donald Trump’s America.

Author and literature professor Finney’s latest political potboiler is set 10 years after his immigrant rights/2010 midterm election debut thriller, Money Matters (2019). This time, Bay Area married couple Adam and Julia Gosford find themselves stressed along with the rest of the country thanks to a conspiracy-laden presidency compounded by an encroaching pandemic. As a university computer scientist, Adam knows well the implications of a deadly virus like Covid-19 as it begins its spread worldwide, especially when an oblivious and deflective government fails to take this public health threat seriously. When a team of Homeland Security investigators interrogates him about the identity of a hacker who exposed compromising emails from the incoming director of a high-profile government agency, he knows things are going haywire. Julia, a public policy advocate for the ACLU, also feels the increasing mayhem in a hotly contested election year where conspiracy theorist collective QAnon is busy spreading misinformation and suspicion. Finney effectively draws from recent headlines to craft the novel’s many aspects, which most readers will cringingly recognize. As the coronavirus paranoia engulfs the couple, whose relationship has seen better days, so do their involvement in extramarital affairs and a bewildering amount of QAnon research. For any other era, the conspiracy theories and complexities would be outlandish, but this is 2020, and nothing is off the table. The problem lies in the sheer amount of complications, as Finney overstuffs his story and it ultimately becomes unwieldy. Julia’s resentful ex-boyfriend Dave resurfaces to wreak havoc on her marriage after a careless indiscretion; her best friend Amy’s husband comes out; and Adam cheats with a colleague. Then Julia lapses into drug dependency. Surprising moments of social commentary sometimes surface, addressing topics like homelessness, the American dream, LGBTQ+ rights, racism, and what kind of future the Gosfords’ young daughter, Liz, will have to contend with as she ages. The author vividly captures the chaos and mayhem of 2020, anchoring all the pandemonium with a daring duo that fights for love, justice, and humanity throughout an unforgettable year in human history. If the tale’s histrionics aren’t enough, readers will delight in the surprise conclusion.

Timely, relevant, and frenetic, this bracing thriller brandishes a healthy social conscience.